The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson: Composition as Conversation (review)

Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson were intimate friends, especially when they were working productively together. But they also experienced periods of rifts and divisions, usually resulting from their competing ambitions. The letters collected here, along with the thorough notes and supplemental materials provided by Susan Holbrook and Thomas Dilworth, describe in detail the fascinating collaborations of Stein and Thomson—two Americans, living abroad in Paris, surrounded by avant-garde artists and literary figures, who came together to write songs and operas that had no precedent. Their opera Four Saints in Three Actsbecame a surprising popular success, despite its nonlinear approach to time and its lack of traditional character development. It had a run on Broadway and even influenced New York fashion trends. Stein's and Thomson's letters reveal a great deal about how the opera came to be and document how eager they both were to promote it to a general audience.

Holbrook and Dilworth's edition of the Stein-Thomson correspondence provides all of the letters and notes that passed between the two artists from December of 1926 through July of 1946 (Stein died on July 27 of that year). There was a two-year break in the correspondence after Thomson, somewhat against his will, got into the middle of an argument between Stein and the French poet Georges Hugnet. On January 21, 1931, Stein sent Thomson a calling card that read simply: "Miss Gertrude Stein declines further acquaintance with Mr. Thomson" (189). There was no further communication until May 30, 1933, when Thomson re-established contact, wanting Stein's input on plans for the premiere of Four Saints in Three Actsthat was to take place in Hartford in February of the following year.

In addition to the Stein-Thomson correspondence, Holbrook and Dilworth include letters from Stein's lawyer, William Bradley, who mediated the contract negotiations that took place before the Four Saintspremiere. Relevant letters from Stein's companion, Alice B. Toklas, are also interspersed throughout the book. The epilogue includes a lengthy discussion of the Toklas-Thomson relationship, maintained after Stein's death, and all of their letters relating to the Stein-Thomson opera The Mother of Us Allare printed in full. The entire collection is prefaced by a thoughtful introduction that reconstructs the fascinating world of the Paris avant-garde in the 1930s and 1940s, reading Stein and Thomson's work within that context. The volume concludes with several appendices: a description of Thomson by Georges Hugnet; a manuscript of Thomson's Miss Gertrude Stein as a Young Girl for Violin Alone; Stein's poetic portrait, "Virgil Thomson" (which begins "Yes ally. As ally. Yes ally yes as ally. A very easy failure takes place."); Hugnet's "Life of Gertrude Stein"; and the contract for Four Saints in Three Acts. Holbrook and Dilworth reinforce the correspondence with their introduction, extensive notes, and supplemental materials, facilitating both a clear understanding of the ways Stein and Thomson influenced one another and a sense of the impact made by their "preeminent collaborative works of modern art" (19).

Early in their relationship, Stein seems to have been shaping Thomson's life and work more profoundly than he was shaping hers. He had read her Tender Buttonswhen he was twenty-two while studying music at Harvard, and he sought out a meeting with her several months after he moved to Paris. Stein was already well established when she met Thomson, and once she developed an affinity for his music, the letters reveal that she eagerly sought out patrons for him among her well-connected friends. Her efforts were not entirely unselfish. She believed that Thomson had a real understanding of her work. He set her words to simple tonal accompaniments, steeped in the language of traditional American music. Despite the novel and sometimes challenging style of Stein's poetry, she...